Thoughts and reflections form the past week or so from my own financial independence campaign.

Progress on my goals

Boat plan

We’re back in the water and living aboard!!!

After what has felt like forever, we moved back aboard on Saturday.

Instantly better situation. I’m not sure how exactly to explain it, but being on our boat just feels “right”. Like it’s where I need to be and what I should be doing in life.

Saturday night was the best sleep I’ve had in five long weeks of being ashore.

Electrical repairs have sort of worked so far. We still haven’t fitted the new chartplotter but this time it’s because someone who is definitely not Lady SierraWhiskyMike ordered the wrong one, so it’s needs to be returned. Bugger.

I need to tinker with the ceiling lights. I connected them in parallel circuits but I don’t think enough juice is getting through to them and they’re all unusable dim. That’s a chore for next weekend.

On a rogue point: our leisure power switch mechanically failed today and I’ve had to improvise with a spare bus bar connector and a blade fuse carrier. The switch is a 23-year-old toggle switch that doubles as a circuit breaker, and looking at the case the plastic has just fatigued over time. Surprise problem! Yay! Have ordered a replacement but the fused connection will work for now and keep us safe from fire hazards.

Distractions and detours

My weekend started with a drunk mother-in-law asking me to divorce Lady SierraWhiskyMike if I don’t want children. So yeah, that was fun.

We’re both pretty unimpressed. I was alone at the time and the mother-in-law has insinuated that there had been conversations about it. There hadn’t.

The old girl is shaping up to be bundled off to a very mediocre home at this rate…

I don’t care if you want or don’t want kids. I’ve never really wanted them, and having some “because it’s the done thing” is a stupid idea. If you want them, that’s cool. Many of my friends now have some, they seem to like it.

So anyway, I told Lady SierraWhiskyMike who is pretty livid. We talked about it, we’re still happy with who and where we are, and we don’t know where the MIL is getting her information from. The woman can do one.

Non-FIRE goals

My guitar rock god quest (AKA learning to play)

I did an improv session on Monday that was absolutely fantastic.

Well, I had a great time. Dunno what anyone who could hear it was thinking.

It’s funny. Last week, basically useless on guitar. This week? Like a real guitarist. Well, almost.

Huh!

We’re doing Carry On My Wayward Son by Kansas. It’s a great riff and there’s a time signature change. It’s challenging, but doable.

Fitness

I did my first session as per normal, aiming for max weight on each rep.

The second session: I ditched the weighted belt I had been using and did 3 sets of 8 pull-ups and 10 dips, practiced wall-assisted handstand again, then did a 20 minute treadmill session with steep hillside

So that’s a pretty good training week, but could do better.

Unfortunately, I broke this weekend and ate pretty badly. I had pizza, I had chocolate… not good at all.

So I guess I need to use this additional energy this week!

Final thoughts

Living aboard if awesome and I love it.

Actually, when I’m living aboard, I find I don’t care about other things. I can leave my phone alone for ages unless I want to look up spare parts. I walk the dog without a phone or watch. We usually sleep soundly in the V-berth. It’s like being at peace.

Yeah, boat life is as cool as I thought it would be, even after two winters.

It helps that it’s now summer and the marina is beautiful!

My financial independence campaign continues!